Poetry Stand Gets The Word Out

WriteGirl mentor Alexandra Gazzaniga studied poetry at USC. She still writes it today. She and her mentee Janelle F. meet weekly at The Coffee Bean. Lately, they’ve been testing a new way to make poetry fun and inclusive so they decided to set up a poetry stand.

“Both Janelle and I are a little shy,” says Alexandra. “It’s a little intimidating to go up to people. So we just made a sign with a catchy little poem that starts ” ‘Want a poem with your latte?’ and put it near us.”

Turns out the pair’s first customer liked her poems so much that she gave them five dollars each. Alexandra and Janelle donated the money to WriteGirl. Alexandra and Janelle don’t set up their stand every week – it can be distracting to recruit customers. But they like the way it gets them thinking in new ways.

The goal is to write poetry on the fly and from another point of view. Teens see that poetry has a real place in the world and can be useful. Customers can memorialize events, like birthdays and weddings or they can get lyrics for a specific purpose, like a love poem or a travel poem.

Here are a few of the people who’ve approached Alexandra and Janelle at their stand:

-A college student going away for study abroad wanting to bring a poem with her.

-A woman who asked for a poem on sunshine.

-A woman who asked for a poem for a troubled relationship with her partner.

So try it. And, of course, please write us and let us know how it goes.

–Anthea Raymond

 

Professional fiction writers’ lessons from WriteGirl’s Fiction Workshop – January 12th, 2008

At the January 12th, 2008 Fiction Workshop in the EPICC at USC, WriteGirl mentees, mentors, and volunteers were lucky enough to be graced by the wisdom and experience of fiction writers Gina Nahai and Janet Fitch.

The WriteGirl Workshop Team separated everyone into two groups. Each located in a separate room, Ms. Nahai took one room’s group and Ms. Fitch, the other.

Ms. Fitch began her lesson with an exercise: take ten minutes to write one sentence without stopping.For this exercise there are two rules:

1. Your pen must not stop for ten whole minutes

2. You must not use periods

Reactions to this exercise at first appeared to be utter frustration! Alas, isn’t that the idea? Once we passed the 5 minute mark, all pens in the room seemed to be moving fluidly, without faltering.

Next, Ms. Fitch moved on to her top five lessons for fiction writers:

1. Write for the 5 smartest people you know. Assume that the writer will understand you.

2.Write in scenes. A scene is when someone or something enters and changes the course of the story.

3. Vary the construction of your sentences. Make some long with dependent clauses to deepen the meaning. Make some short for punctuation.

4. Do not use cliches.

5.Don’t buy things on credit cards. Live within your means so that you don’t have to take a job that will distract from writing.

Gina Nahai’s number one tip:”Have faith! Writing takes a lot of faith!”

Gina Nahai is the author of Moonlight on the Avenues of Faith, Cry of the Peacock, and Sunday’s Silence.

Janet Fitch is the author of the acclaimed book White Oleander which was adapted for the screen in 2002. She has also written Paint it Black and Kicks.